Re: [PLUG] Self-hosted "card wall" tool?

[JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org>]

On 08/14/2013 12:39 AM, JP Vossen wrote:
> I'm looking for a "card wall" or Kanban tool that I can host internally.
>   Trello.com would work great, but since that is cloud-based all the
> security people's heads exploded (including mine, sort-of).
>
> Linux (ideally CentOS) and free of cost is required (don't ask), F/OSS
> preferred.  Any clues?

I wanted to follow-up on this.  Thanks for all the great ideas, some of 
which worked out quite well!


Summary:

* Quick & dirty and limited but worked: https://code.google.com/p/kanbanik/

* Slightly harder to install and use, but prettier and more scalable: 
http://sourceforge.net/projects/kados/


Details:

As a stop-gap we ended up doing this, *internally*.  I got it up and 
running in 10-20 minutes right before the con call for which I needed it.

https://code.google.com/p/kanbanik/
* mkdir -p /opt/kanbanik && cd $_
* wget 
'https://kanbanik.googlecode.com/files/kanbanik-application-0.2.4-1.zip' 
'https://kanbanik.googlecode.com/files/kanbanik-runtime-0.2.0.zip'
https://code.google.com/p/kanbanik/wiki/Install
* unzip -q '*.zip'
* ln -fs ../../../kanbanik-application/kanbanik.war 
kanbanik-runtime/jetty/webapps
* chmod +x kanbanik-runtime/{start.sh,stop.sh}
* Fiddle around getting it to run:
  * Start/stop scripts require you to be in the correct dir.  Dumb...
  * cd /opt/kanbanik/kanbanik-runtime
  * ./start.sh

This gave us a shared Kanban, but rather limited:

* Users need to manually refresh the browser page after updates.
* It seems like everything is at the top level, no different sections 
for different users = not scalable for more than a small team.
* You can drag and drop cards to change the order, but order reverts and 
is lost after a refresh.
* We had a stability problem where it kept crashing, not sure why. 
Possibly more than 3-4 users at 1 time?  If so, not scalable for more 
than a small team.
* No good way to export:
  * Screen shots are good enough for this.
  * Can also dump card text like: /opt/kanbanik/kanbanik-runtime# 
mongodb/bin/mongoexport --db kanbanikdb --collection tasks --csv 
--fields 'workflowitem,ticketId,name' | sort
* It's not that pretty and the interface is a bit clunky.
* There does not seem to be an indication when a card contains test or 
note in the "body."
* Cards do not auto-resize to fit contents.


Still, it worked quick & dirty and really saved the day for what we 
needed to do!


But meanwhile, we outgrew Kanbanik, which worked *great* and really fast 
for 1 board, but it is bogging down and we're hitting all the limits above.

[*] Download: http://www.kados.info/en/?page_id=68
	[x] http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/kados/kados_v1.6.0.zip
[*] http://docs.kados.info/install/
	* Assumes working PHP 5.3 and web server
	[*] mkdir /tmp/junk && cd $_
	[*] unzip -q /root/kados_v1.6.0.zip
	[*] cd new_install_v1.6.0
	[*] mv -v kados libraries /var/www/html
	[*] cd sql
	[*] mysql -u root -p
		[*] create database kados_db;
		[*] grant all on kados_db.* to 'kados_user'@'localhost' identified by 
'redacted';
	[*] cat create_database_v1.6.0.sql | mysql -u kados_user -p kados_db
	[*] vi /var/www/html/kados/conf/connect.conf
		[*] Set user and password
	[*] Log in as admin / admin
	[*] vi /var/www/html/kados/messages/en_ihm_messages.php
		[*] "KAnban" --> "Kanban"
	[*] Change language from Fr to En
	[*] Log out and back in!

Some limits:

* Users need to manually refresh the browser page after updates.
* You can drag and drop cards to change the order, but order reverts and 
is lost after a refresh.
* No good way to export:
  * Screen shots are good enough for this.
  * It's MySQL, so you can dump text as usual (I have a nifty little 
query for this if anyone ever cares)
* Cards do not auto-resize to fit contents, but do show a scroll-bar.


We're investigating alternatives, such as 
http://www.redmine.org/plugins/ekanban which looks great, but fails to 
install on a Turnkey Linux Redmine.  For details see my bug 
https://github.com/samchen2009/ekanban/issues/36.

Also, it turns out we do have Jira internally, so I've asked if it has 
or can get Greenhopper and if my team can use it.

So thanks again,
JP
----------------------------|:::======|-------------------------------
JP Vossen, CISSP            |:::======|      http://bashcookbook.com/
My Account, My Opinions     |=========|      http://www.jpsdomain.org/
----------------------------|=========|-------------------------------
"Microsoft Tax" = the additional hardware & yearly fees for the add-on
software required to protect Windows from its own poorly designed and
implemented self, while the overhead incidentally flattens Moore's Law.
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug